The Voice Review: The Coaches Hold Out for the Best to Fill Their Team

It’s crunch time for the coaches of The Voice to fill their slots for their team. Each coach has twelve slots to fill and with Monday and Tuesday being the last two days of blind auditions, it’s all or nothing for them to have the very best on their team. Monday night was a two-hour packed evening of blind auditions and the gloves were off for Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Shakira and Usher to woo several extraordinarily talented singers to be on their teams.

Who Wowed

Kat Perkins from Minneapolis, Minnesota, caught my attention. It wasn’t hard to do with her singing Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman”. She mentioned in her chat that she used to sing country, but she did her thing singing a rock song. Her voice is suited for it and she hit every note without one ounce of wavering. The battle instantly began between Adam, Shakira and Usher. I personally couldn’t see Kat being on Team Usher because I wouldn’t know how she’d hold out with an R&B song. I have a feeling when the battle round begins, Kat could find herself remaining on Adam’s team or face getting stolen by Shakira.

Cierra Mickens did it for me. I loved the sound of her voice the minute she started the first few notes of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”. Her joy with being on the stage shined in the vocals and she captured the audience from beginning to the very end. What I loved the most about Cierra is that she didn’t karaoke it; she sang true to how CeeLo does, however, she turned it into her own by adding her own touch to the song. Shakira, who won against both Blake and Usher, will have fun when it comes to song choice for her in the upcoming battle round.

The next performance that wowed me was that of Ddendyl. I loved the different arrangement she did with “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King. She had a mixture of folk and blues in her performance, and she had a great ability to hit the bravado notes when she needed to. Too bad the other coaches besides Shakira didn’t turn their chairs because she was very good. Then again, Shakira has a great connection with young female artists, so Ddendyl may have a chance beyond the battle round.

The last performance of the night had me at the very first note. Josh Kaufman, from Indianapolis, Indiana, was so spot on with George Michael’s “One More Try”. It was the first performance that sent shivers down my spine. His register when hitting the high notes was wicked. He definitely deserved the four chair turn from all of the coaches. I hope that Adam is wise not to blow it by not choosing him beyond the battle round, because his loss of Josh would definitely become someone else’s steal.

Who Didn’t

Gabi Ramirez didn’t capture my attention. He sang the Ed Sheeran song “The A Team” and he pretty much rushed through it when I listened to it. At the start of the song, he sounded very breathy and he didn’t really pause at certain notes. I think he got very nervous when he didn’t see anyone turn their chairs for him. There was no emotional connection to the song, therefore he fell flat, at that is a shame because if he made an emotional connection, picked places where he could have heightened his vocals, he might have gotten a chair turned.

I wasn’t too impressed by Paula DeAnda’s performance. I felt that she was a bit over the top and a bit too pitchy with Ariana Grande’s song “The Way”. I will be honest by saying I blocked her out the minute she said she had a contract with Clive Davis and had two albums released. I was even more out of tune with her when she started to sing, because she sounded too generic and too much like other female artists that I’ve heard in the past. I’ll be surprised if she pulls it out in the battle rounds because of the other singers that blew me away in this episode. Paula went onto Blake’s team.

After James Wolpert’s performance of Imagine Dragon’s “Radioactive”, no one else’s performance hold a candle to it. That is how I felt when Luke Cooper took to the stage for his blind audition. He was all over the place with the song, well, at least that’s my thoughts as I heard him sung. He wavered a lot when it came to hitting the big notes for the song. With it being the final two nights of the blind auditions, the coaches can’t afford to choose anyone who just doesn’t stand out or are the whole package.

Tyler Montgomery fell flat with taking on a song from the Stevie Wonder songbook. He performed “I Wish”. His falsetto just didn’t gel and it was another performance where the artist just over did the song. I am not sure if it was nerves that caught up with him but I felt that he was lost. As Adam pointed out, Stevie are pretty big shoes to fill when it comes to someone taking on one of his songs, and unfortunately for Tyler, he didn’t lock me in.

Tuesday is the final night of blind auditions and I expect more pickiness for the coaches that still have spots to fill. Stay tuned to see what goes down, Tuesday at 8/7C.